


A Toast Between Friends

by lionessvalenti



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Best Friends, Future Fic, Gen, Yuletide 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:29:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that the time has come, Claudia is afraid of being caretaker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Toast Between Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnotherRoad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherRoad/gifts).



> Thank you to minkhollow for beta reading!

It wasn't as though this was some kind of surprise. Even before anyone told Claudia that Mrs. Frederic was dying (or, as Artie had put it, ready to go), she knew it was coming. She could feel it in her bones. She'd been feeling it for weeks, like the transition was already beginning, but she tried to push it aside. She ignored it, like that would make everything go away.

When Kosan and Dr. Vanessa showed up, Claudia knew it was time. And that was why she bolted.

She showed the bartender her ID, confirming that, yes, she was over twenty-one, and got her rum and Coke. It wasn't about getting drunk, but just being somewhere that wasn't the Warehouse or the B&B. Univille's only bar seemed like the obvious choice. Maybe a little too obvious, since she'd only been sitting there for five minutes when she heard footsteps stop behind her.

"Hey, Claud?"

She twisted around halfway and there was Steve, a few steps behind her with his hands in his jeans pockets.

"You want a drink?" she asked, knowing that simply telling him to go away wasn't going to do any good. "I'm buying."

"Sure," he replied, and sat down next to her at the bar. He ordered a drink (and didn't get carded) and for a minute, they didn't say anything. It was nice, sharing a drink with her best friend without any pressure. No one was telling her what she needed to do. No destiny. Just a drink with a friend.

"You can't hide out here forever, you know," Steve said finally. "They're going to close at two, and then you're still risking alcohol poisoning. Hey, do you think that when you're caretaker you'll be able to drink as much as you want? It won't kill you."

"That's not funny," Claudia muttered into her glass. Even as she said it, she wondered if he had a point. She knew caretakers were essentially immortal and only certain, magic things could kill them, but did that mean she could avoid regular death things? Mrs. Frederic had gone over a lot of things, teaching her, maybe when Claudia didn't even realize she was being taught, but some of the actual logistics of being caretaker had been glossed over.

The corner of Steve's mouth turned up in a little smile, probably sensing her internal questioning. "Why don't you want to do this, Claudia? You love the Warehouse. The Warehouse is your life, and this just makes it really official."

"I wanted being a Warehouse _agent_ to be my life," Claudia said. "There's a big difference between being an agent and being caretaker. There's a whole different list of responsibilities. I'm twenty-four years old. I should be dating and drinking, or whatever it is other young people do. Ones that don't hunt artifacts."

"You don't have a problem with responsibility."

"This is _kind of_ a big one."

Steve chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. But there's got to be something else to this."

Claudia shook her head. "That's it."

"You're lying."

She wrinkled her nose. She didn't make a habit of lying in general, let alone to her best friend, so she sometimes forgot about his talent. "It's scary, Steve."

He nodded again. "I know, but being responsible for the Warehouse isn't what you're afraid of, is it? I know you want the Warehouse. You've been responsible for it for a long time, already."

"Yeah, I have, but with you and Artie, and Pete, and Myka. This would be just me. Forever. And eventually alone."

Steve's eyes widened, and she knew he'd figured it out. "You're not afraid of being caretaker, you're afraid of being immortal."

Claudia drained her glass and motioned to the bartender for another one. Maybe she _did_ want to get drunk. Steve could drive her home. "I lose everyone," she said slowly, "and I don't handle it well. When I lost Joshua, I ended up in an institution."

"You ended up in an institution because you knew he wasn't lost," Steve said. Even though she had opened up, even unintentionally, about being in the institution on their first mission together, it had taken her more than a year to tell Steve all of her history. But he was her best friend and a hard guy to keep a secret from.

"You died and we both know everything I did to get you back," Claudia constinued. "I broke all the rules and risked my own life, and the crazy part is, I would do it all over again. But at some point, it will be your time. It'll be the time for you to go and I won't be able to do anything about it. And then I'll be alone."

"Claudia, you're never going to be alone," Steve said, reaching over to take her hand. "Being caretaker, you're going to have a life more than you would as an agent. You can find your one and have a family, or do whatever you want. You're always going to have people around you."

"But not you," she countered. "Not Artie, or Pete and Myka. I don't want to outlive everyone I know. I don't know how Mrs. Frederic did it. She had a husband and a family, and they're all gone. She took me to visit her grandson once, and he was old and in a nursing home. How do you even survive that?"

"You do. You just do," he replied heavily. She looked up, and she could see the pain in his eyes. "It's hard, and it might take years to move on, but you do. You make new friends, and you build your life. And some days you let go, and other days you can't, but you just keep going."

"Jinksy," Claudia said, squeezing his hand. "I just don't know what I'd do without all of you."

He smiled, though his eyes were still sad. "You don't have to worry about that for a while. Artie's been around since the dark ages, and I've already cheated death once. Pete and Myka, well, if they've survived this long, they know what they're doing. I think you're stuck with us for a long time. And when the time does come, Claud, you're going to be ready for it."

She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. "But I'm supposed to be caretaker _now_. What if I screw it up? I screw up all the time."

"You won't," Steve said, and there was something so confident, so sure in his voice, that Claudia felt inclined to believe him. "This is what you're supposed to be doing. I know it, Artie knows it, Mrs. Frederic knows it, and I know that you know it."

Claudia reached for her drink, but she didn't quite get to picking it up off the bar. She knew Steve was right. Everything in her life had been leading up to this. Maybe from the time Joshua had started messing around with the compass. Maybe even before that.

"I'm going to miss Mrs. F.," she said with a sigh.

"Me too," Steve replied," but Artie said she has all of her affairs in order. She's ready. She's just waiting on you, now."

She tilted her head up so she could look at Steve's face. "You're going to be there, right?"

He nodded. "Every step of the way."

Claudia sat up straighter and took a sip of her rum and Coke. "Then I guess it's time."

"You're going to be great, Claud," Steve said with a smile. "I'm not worried about a thing. And no one else is, either. We're excited about the reign of Claudia."

"Reign of Claudia," she repeated. She had to admit, she liked the way that sounded. It was catchy. "Okay, Jinksy, you win. Let's finish these drinks and then... then I'm going to be caretaker. Forever. Or at least, for a while."

Steve picked up his glass and held it at eye-level. "To the reign of Claudia."

She grinned and clinked her glass to his. "To very good friends being here for a very long time."

And they drank to that.


End file.
